Minna Rainio’s and Mark Roberts’s They Came in Crowded Boats and Trains travels the Italian film festivals. It will be screened on Friday, November 9, at FrontDoc International Documentary Film Festival, held from November 6–10 in Aosta, and on Sunday, November 18, at Reggio Film Festival, held from November 8–19 in Reggio Emilia.
In They Came in Crowded Boats and Trains, refugees from Finland and Iraq struggle across geographical and temporal borders on a journey to find safety. The film interweaves the stories of Finnish refugees during the World War II with the journeys of refugees from Iraq who travelled to Finland in the present day. The division between us and them, the past and the present, becomes blurred. It was awarded with the Turku Biennial Prize in February 2018.
Minna Rainio is a photographer and media artist. She holds a BA degree from Surrey Institute of Art and Design, England and MA from University of Lapland, Finland and completed her PhD in 2014. Rainio has worked as a visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota, USA and as Lecturer at the University of Lapland. Mark Roberts is a visual artist and scriptwriter from the UK who is currently based in Finland. He holds a BA from the Surrey Institute of Art and Design, and an MA from the University of Salford, Greater Manchester. Together they combine media art, conceptual art and documentary to deal with social and political issues. Rainio and Roberts have exhibited widely in Finland, Europe and United States including Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki (2004), Finnish Photography Triennial 2006 at Salo Art Museum, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen, Germany (2008), and Finnish Cultural Institute in Paris (2008), as well as numerous international festivals.
FrontDoc International Documentary Film Festival, November 6–10, Aosta, Italy
Reggio Film Festival, November 8–19, Reggio Emilia, Italy
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